From the diary of the winner of the first All-Russian Programming Olympiad for schoolchildren in 1989


    (from the personal archive of Daniel Alievsky: “The second on the left is Ilya Zhiltsov, blessed memory of him. I stand behind him, my head is the third on the left”)

    (about the Olympiad itself, the First All-Russian Schoolchildren in Programming (Informatics) 1989 )

    At my request, Daniel ( http://algart.net ) shared his memories:

    “We, i.e. Sverdlovsk “team” of 2 people - the first two places from the regional Olympiad, Maxim Statsyuk and I - flew to Krasnoyarsk on the night of March 18-19, 1989. Early in the morning we finally got to the hotel. Until then, I had never been to hotels, I only read about them in books, and the impression of the Soviet hotel was rather difficult. But it was possible to live. There was even a toilet and shower in the room, but in general the room was designed for two. Not so bad in Soviet times! (Later, at the All-Union, I realized that it can be worse.)

    The first day was spent on sleep (4 hours) and, of course, on cards that we cut with Statsuk and guys from other cities until half past three at night. 3.40 - still hang up.

    However, I didn’t get enough sleep, since starting at 9 a.m., after breakfast, I should do business again, namely cards. Well, after 3 days we all went shopping. Krasnoyarsk is a big city interesting for beginners. From seven in the evening until 0.30 - again the cards, until we were dispersed by our leader, who brought us with Maxim from Sverdlovsk. By the way, a very nice girl, they called, if I am not mistaken, Victoria Viktorovna.


    The next day, March 21 (Tuesday), I still got enough sleep. Getting up at 12.30 in the morning and having lunch, I went with everyone to the opening of the Olympiad, which took place at 16.00. The diary claims that there was a stupid show performance at the opening; well, after 25 years I don’t remember him at all.

    But the next day, on Wednesday, there was great joy. Early in the morning, my friend Ilya Zhiltsov arrived. (Blessed memory of him; about 15 years ago he drowned in the Black Sea.) He came with our teacher, the head of the School of Young Mathematicians at USU, Alexander Geyn.

    Actually, “according to the rules” Ilya did not go to the All-Russian tour, as he took only 4th place at the regional Olympiad. However, he was the winner of the previous regional Olympiad and, if I am not mistaken, the winner of the previous All-Union Olympiad in Informatics, which was held here in Sverdlovsk; it gave him privileges. In fact, perhaps among us he was the strongest participant; he subsequently became a very serious mathematician. At this All-Russian Olympiad, he also took a modest 4th place, behind me; however, after that, at the All-Union, he overtook me, again taking 4th place and getting the first diploma, while I took only 7th (second diploma). As a result, he still got to the First International Olympiad in Bulgaria. Then he often said that 4th is his “favorite” place. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

    And he arrived early in the morning, in fact, because it was the day of the first round. Theoretical. So they didn’t let us sleep again, already at 8.30 I had to go to Krasnoyarsk University, and from 9.55 to 13.55 solve problems. I solved three of four problems, and it was difficult for me. Ilya decided everything. The theoretical tour for the programming competition is still a very strange invention. There was, in particular, the task: to implement a model of colliding disks. Well, how can one do such things ON PAPER? This is some kind of perversion. (By that time, I had the experience of solving the more complex task of modeling on a computer, of course, with graphics.) Well, after lunch, they were able to give credit to the cards, this time with Ilya.

    The next day, Thursday, March 23, we were taken on a tour to demonstrate the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric station. Such is the Soviet "miracle of nature". Moreover, the nature there is really amazing. And after lunch we were introduced to another miracle of Soviet engineering, namely, the BK 0010 computers, on which we had to study on a practical tour. If anyone does not know what it is, then thank God - I have never seen a more terrible monster among staffers. And looking at his screen was harmful not only for many hours, but even for one minute.

    I ignored the subsequent performance in the Youth Theater, which we wanted to entertain, instead, I walked with my new friend Kolya Kozlov from Ufa towards this youth theater. It is always better to walk on your own, and not build.

    Friday March 24th - practical tour. On these same monsters. (But computers, Yamaha, normal at that time, promised.) The tasks turned out to be almost school ones, an ordinary long integer arithmetic and analysis of primes. Even boring. Well, then after lunch, you could finally get down to business. I and Ilya and the guys from Chelyabinsk-70 — two boys and their leader — somewhat changed the rules of the well-known game of “thousand”, so winning was extremely difficult - we slipped back a few hundred points from time to time (and in order to win, you need to score 1000 points). This was probably the longest card game in my life. Starting at 15.00, we played until 6.40 in the morning, after which I turned sour and went to sleep - but after an hour and a half, I still woke up and returned to the game. We finished only at nine in the morning. We had a meeting with local schoolchildren (that is, schoolchildren were shown us a curiosity), and then a very important thing in the life of the Olympiad was an appeal. However, as far as I remember, she gave me nothing.

    On the same day there was a ceremonial closing, where, it seems, the Minister of Education came and made some speeches. After which we were able to return to the interrupted game, which was what we did until one in the morning.

    The winner of the Olympiad was a then unknown person to me, Belevtsev from Obninsk, who scored 120 out of a possible 175. I scored 114 and got the second place, sharing it with Maxim Plaksin from Kirov (112 points). Subsequently, with them, and with Illya, we went to the All-Union (as far as I remember, they took about 20 people from the All-Russian). Maxim Statsyuk, it seems, took 17th place or something like that and also went to the All-Union; there, unfortunately, he and Belevtsev did not receive almost anything (8 points out of 50, Plaksin’s 15).

    I was awarded a very peculiar prize - the so-called “monocular”. In fact, a healthy half from binoculars. Apparently, the organizers did not have enough money for the whole binoculars. After the Sverdlovsk Oblast it was somehow even inconvenient - there they presented me with an excellent radio and some good art books. However, at the All-Union gifts were even worse.

    Our adventures could have ended on this, but our leader, Viktoria Viktorovna, managed to get a trip for a couple of days for our group of Uralians so that we could see the famous Pillars Nature Reserve. It was Sunday morning, before lunch. We rode on a cable car to one of the peaks of the “Pillars” near the Yenisei. The views, indeed, are amazing. And one of our boys, who came from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, even dispensed with the cable car and walked the same path through the mountains himself. I could not understand how he did it - my friends and I returned by force, having gone down a steep slope no more than 100 meters. Alas, then I did not have the experience of walking in the mountains, acquired now and here in Israel. After that Ilya and Chelyabinsk paid tribute to the cards, spending the next night until 7 a.m.

    The next day, on Monday, we were kicked out of the hotel (our term was over), and we had to settle in a boarding school for the last night. Then I realized that the hotel was very good. The boarding school was provided for one giant room in which there were beds - probably 30 pieces. Well, the cards brightened up the horrors of the boarding school. The next and last day of the journey, Tuesday March 28th, was dedicated to shopping and maps. It is possible that on this day I bought books, going to another district of the city on the other side of the Yenisei - in programming and mathematical logic. I have brought some of them to Israel and still keep them. And late at night - the airport and night plane to Sverdlovsk. "
    *************************
    Daniel (@DanielAlievsky)

    P.S. Daniel is ready to answer questions if anyone is generous with invite and karma

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